Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-05-28
THE OLD STONE FORT AND A
GHOST STORY.

Nashville American.
An article in the Southern Lumber
of this city says:
eff the concentric rings in trees are
q correct index of their age, thatmys-
FERROUS structure near Manchester,
Coffee County, Tenn, called the old
Stone Fort, is of very ancient origin.
The trees growing on the rude stone
walls that surround the old structure
show by their rings, fully five hun.
dred years growth. These trees, now
being cut away, are the only witness
es to the age of the stone work. Will
their testimony be accepted by his
torians? Will the antiquarians ever
find out who built that old stone fort
and for what purpose? If any inves-
tigators wish to examine these old
trees they should do so pretty soon, as
they are rapidly disappearing"
There is nothing in Tennessee, or
in the South, whose antiquity is so
mysterious and entirely beyond the
domain of decent speculation, as the
old Stone Fort, which is about one
mile and a half below the town of
Manchester.
The two prongs of Duck River
come within, say, 200 yards of each
other, and then widen out, making a
territory of perhaps 1000 acres in the
forks of the river, and below the Mar
rows. At the Narrows the fort COM
mences by stone wall, now earth
covered, running from one river to the
other, and there the walls are built
along the banks of both rivers down
to a point where a canal had been
cut, from one river to the other: there
wall is made from one river to the
other, perhaps quarter Of a mile.
On the outside of this wall is a hollow
and in this hollow is the sign of the
canal or cut, evidently intended tC
protect the fort by both the wall and
the canal. From the upper tC
the lower wall, at places, there
are high bluffs on both rivers
Wherever this bluff-precipitus-
found, there is no wall, but wherevei
there is no natural barrier the wall il
built. The entrance to the fort wa:
at the upper end, and the gateway;
show that the builders were doins
their work intelligently. The en-
trance is by narrow pass-way, will
walls on either side, and offsets so a
to prevent the enemy on the outside
from having a direct entrance fo
themselves, and so as to protect thos,
on the inside from missels from tn,
outside. The fort contains forty-Sevel
acres, and is, or was when the write
first saw it, heavily timbered, man.
of the trees of large size growing OF
top of the walls.
Col. Sam Murray, who settled Their
about 1903, cut one of the tree
from the top of the wal
and found it to be about tiv
hundred years old. One mile up tn
river from the fort is an immens
mound-the largest one perhaps il
the country-making it probable tn
fort was built by the mound builders
Beyond this nobody knows anything
about it. Col. Murray, who was
man of high intelligence, claimed
have conferred with the Indians c
different tribes, but none of ther
could give him any account of teeth
err by tradition or otherwise.
This fort is one of the many ev
dences that in this country, at som
remote period, there was a race of pee
pie of more stability and Intelligent
than the rowing Indians which tn
first settlers found.
From the time of the first settle
ment of the country there were gho,
stories connected with the old Ston
Fort, which about 1884, eliminate
in most remarkable episode.
In 1888, six gentlemen, men
high standing, who lived at Mu
freesboro, went out in the neighbo
hood of the old fort to have a fC
hunt. Thecountry was thinly settle
and there were many deer. Aft
having camped out for several day
ono niUht thnI- uou, .,t,,a,,o, e;,,b